Work by European History lecturer Dr Julius Ruiz has changed national consciousness in Spain, by challenging orthodox assumptions that Republican terror during the Spanish Civil War was the work of anarchist ‘uncontrollables’. Instead, Ruiz has shown, Republican extrajudicial terror was organised by revolutionary tribunals. War and massacre Approximately 50,000 people lost their lives during the 1936-1939 war between rebel Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, and those loyal to the established Spanish republic. The capital, Madrid, witnessed over 8,000 extrajudicial executions, including the massacre of 2,400 prisoners in late 1936. The killings, seen as spontaneous Republican acts against planned Francoist genocide, left a legacy of intense division within Spain. Exposing the truth Through detailed investigation of neglected Republican and Francoist documentation, Dr Ruiz has challenged the myths and changed the debate, bringing a more critical and impartial perspective. Ruiz argued that Agapito García Atadell, one of the most infamous ‘uncontrollables’, was in fact a prominent Socialist figure who enjoyed widespread support within the Republican party leadership for eliminating elements of the fascist ‘Fifth Column’ that was supposedly active in Madrid. The massacre of 1936 was ordered, Ruiz believes, not by Santiago Carrillo, the future Communist Party leader but by a Popular Front revolutionary tribunal. By creating a database of 4,500 policemen who carried out rear-guard duties in Madrid during the war, Ruiz also demonstrated that the killers themselves were skilled and well educated, with few unskilled workers or peasants. The perpetrators were later incorporated en masse into the new ‘antifascist’ Republican police force. It was those who failed to land a job who were vulnerable to being scapegoated as ‘uncontrollable.’ Changing national consciousness Following archival research, published in journals, articles and a best-selling book, El terror rojo, Dr Ruiz’s arguments have entered national consciousness in Spain. Historian Juan Avilés wrote in El Mundo, Spain’s second-largest daily newspaper: “The appearance of Julius Ruiz's well-conceived and documented study is to be celebrated... because El terror rojo demolishes the comforting thesis that, unlike the rightist repression which was planned and organised from above, the leftist repression was the work of ‘uncontrollables’.” Although uncomfortable reading for some, Ruiz’s research has been publicly acclaimed across the socio-political spectrum. When published in 2012, 2,000 copies of El terror rojo were sold in the first month, prompting a reprint. National media coverage included a television documentary on Telemadrid, interviews on Radio Nacional and Radio OndaCero, a three-page feature, web audio commentary and interview in El Mundo and articles in ABC, La Razón and La Gaceta. Regional papers, such as El Correo of Bilbao and El Norte de Castilla of Valladolid, also carried the news. On 28 December 2012, Professor Octavio Ruiz- Manjón wrote in El Mundo that El terror rojo was one of the ten best non-fiction books published in Spain in 2012. In April 2013 El terror rojo was re-issued as a cheap paperback by Espasa. A month later, it was awarded Spain’s 2012 Hislibris Prize for best history book. Hislibris is the country’s largest community of history bloggers and its website attracts 200,000 visitors a month. The award is evidence of the reach of the research amongst the Spanish public and of the wide recognition accorded to it in shifting the terms of public debate. An English-language version of El terror rojo will be published by Cambridge University Press. Related Links El Mundo article ABC article This article was published on 2024-08-01
